No Spend November

Matt and I were recently discussing money and how we were spending on things we didn't need. The little things (what can I say, the Target dollar spot gets me every time) have been adding up and it's been frustrating to see ourselves spend money we know we shouldn't. So one day I was thinking about ways to cut out some spending and to help us gain some perspective. I didn't want to create a budget that we stuck to for a few weeks, then fell into old habits. I wanted to change how we view money. November is a month we talk about how thankful we are and we wanted to dedicate this month to that in a way we hadn't before. I had seen this blog quite a few times via pinterest and other blogs and it jumped to mind one night.

Matt and I have committed to a "No Spend Month" for the month of November. We haven't cut our budget down as significantly as they did on this blog but here's what we are doing.

We will:
pay our bills.
have a grocery budget we will stick to.
have a gas budget.
be mindful of how much time we spend wanting and spend more time thanking God for what we have.

We will not:
Buy coffee (EEK!) or any sort of food/snack item while out. (Not even from a vending machine)
Spend money going out, no matter how much peer pressure. (Matt went to listen to jazz with friends last night and didn't spend any money!)
Spend extra money on gas (when it's gone, it's gone).
Spend outside of our grocery budget (see above).
Buy iTunes/Amazon music,books, etc. (Bye, bye new kindle books )
Focus on all the things we are missing.

We want to be good stewards of the gifts God has given us. This certainly includes money and we both realize we haven't committed to spending it as well as we should have. After this month is over, we won't be blowing the money we've saved on things we've been wanting all month. We will start December with a fresh budget that will include less spending money and we will continue to be mindful of how we use our funds. Our hope is that starting fresh will give us a new outlook on what we want/need. We will be enforcing a no spend without discussion rule. If anything goes outside of our budget, we will be forced to call the other person to see if it truly is a purchase we should make. We don't want to be slaves to our checking account. We want to be able to afford the things we need when we need them and we want to be able to know that we didn't waste money on things we forgot about soon after the purchase.

After all this, I don't want you to think we're going to be hermits sitting around with nothing to do. I'll post our "No Spend November Bucket List" tomorrow! I'm really excited about the month ahead. There will be lots of time spent with family and enjoying one another!

In Christ,
Marie